I have found myself questioning just about everything this week. I am questioning my beliefs, what I think it it means to be a Christian and the responsibility of the clergy and their responsibility to feed the flock.
I have called into question motives and attitudes, morals and ideas, and I’ve realized that I’m grieving the loss of some relationships while avoiding the grieving and, if I’m being honest, the act of ending others.
I understand that we are all at different starting points in acknowledging our shortcomings, but there’s a difference between being open to learn so you can do better and refusing to open your mind or your worldview to less harmful ways. My friend’s list is getting shorter and shorter. My family ties are being cut in some cases. I’m walking slouched over a bit, but it’s getting easier every day to stand taller on my convictions.
A part of me believes that it’s that language that sets the offense. I mean, what if we came up with another way to say these things? Is there a way to come out and tell someone that what they’re saying is overtly racist without getting them to shut you off immediately because you used the word?
But why do I feel the need to coddle my white friends when they definitely don’t feel the need to do it for my black and brown friends?
Certain Terms
I have struggled with labels for years. I do believe that some words are triggers and can make it seem like offense is intended right out of the gate. Until the death of George Floyd, “poor” was the word I used that unnerved people. I was told so many times that using “poor folks” was rude and derogatory. My reply was always that the people I knew who were uncomfortable with the word weren’t poor. Now I use words like “racism,” “harmful,” and “prejudice,” and I get even uglier pushback, and the people pushing back are insisting that they aren’t the one described that way, but yet …
I’ve done a lot of talking this week. I was interviewed by a media group on Thursday. He asked me what three things were that I really wanted him to ask me about West Virginia in the podcast. That’s kind of difficult because you can’t easily separate them. Poverty is at the root of the opioid crisis here. Lack of jobs with a livable wage are at the root of poverty. Housing, systemic racism, health care, the list goes on and on but keeps circling back to its beginning.
I recorded a podcast on Saturday to talk about my Congressional testimony. To sit and talk about poverty with a black male professional was energizing. We talked about what responsibility people who had moved out of poverty had to fix those systems that were still oppressing people. The conversation was invigorating, and the conversations off the air were even more real. We talked about what it was like to still live with the poverty triggers that have been scientifically proven to be tied to the impact of poverty trauma on brains.
A Revival?
On Saturday, I sat and watched the digital gathering for the Poor People’s Campaign. A bit of my testimony to Congress in 2018 was shown. It has been over a year since I was actively involved with the campaign, but I sat and cried when women I had stood beside there were seen telling their stories again. Dr. William Barber preached about how it was time for a moral revival.
Yesterday afternoon I found myself tagged in the Occupy Democrats share of my testimony. I read comments that said I voted for Trump because I was from West Virginia. Some people applauded me for my deep red views while others asked why I voted Republican when they were constantly making it harder for poor folks. Others accused me of supporting Biden with the same vigor. The funny thing is, I’ve never mentioned my political affiliation in any of the video stuff. These people were attacking me on truths that they had made up. They turned their assumptions into fact in their minds and spewed made up hatred.
My response? This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue. It’s a moral issue. And it is. All of it! I don’t care if we’re talking about poverty or racism; our morals and values are put on display. We’re at a crossroads, but instead of worrying about whether we should go left or right, maybe we should be blazing trails right down the middle. Why have we allowed ourselves to quit looking at social justice as acts of humanity?
We have to pick a side and question everything.
Be willing to learn. Be smarter than hate. Gut check your morals.
Onward,
Amy Jo
